My turbo 24v alpine coupe

[TeXJ]

I would be able to fit it if it weren't for my oil cooler. From front to back I have FMIC>Oil cooler>Radiator and there all pretty close to each other. I also ditched the whole stock rad fan switch and now it is ECU controlled based on coolant temp too (just on and off, no PWM).

Is there a write up on that?

[BUDNUNTA]

who in MD did your VEMS install?

[mitchlevy7]

Is there a write up on that?

Nope. This is the VEMS not stock ecu. The PNP VEMS comes with an extra connector coming out of the back. One of the pins is an output pulling to ground. Grabbed 12v from the harness and had that pin activate the relay and BAM. Theres a fuse in there somewhere too. =]

who in MD did your VEMS install?

Me.


Got a TON done this weekend. If someone every makes me install cam trays in the car on an m5x again I will throw a fit. They just fall out. I was able to tape the lifters in and flip it and take the tape out. At one point I had 3 magnetic pickup things aligning lifters with one in my mouth. Fricken disaster.

All the cutring headgaskets said 85ft lbs for the headstuds. ARP's spec is 75. I have snapped 2000's by overtorquing them so I did 80. Since I am using a techangle wrench, I could see that some of them ended up at 85 anyway, big deal.

I managed to mess up the threads on the oil pan drain. Sweet. Aparently there are kits with a tap and drain plugs that are a tiny bit bigger, so I think ill do that.

Fixed the coolant leak at the heater core connection. Instead of a straight hose on it that got kinked, i found a 90 degree hose on amazon that was the right size and that stopped the kinking.

My brakes are messed up. I think the plunger is sitting sideways between the master and the booster. This happened to me before. After 15 minutes of driving, all 4 wheels lock up. I jacked the car up and the wheels wouldnt budge at all. Going to have to remove the master cylinder asap and get this fixed.

Low beams dont work. No power at 13 or 14 fuses, gotta figure this out. I hope its not inside the fuse box. The relay clicks. I really need the low beams to work.

Made a temp catch can setup. Decided not to run my intake for now (just a filter) as its too crowded to make a line from the can to the intake. Just venting to atmo.

Me and my buddy figured out that my hybrid racing FPR isnt working properly. At the very end of yesterday we tried out an aeromotive FPR and everything worked much better. 50psi of fuel pressure. With the HR one, I can't get the pressure to go under 80 psi at idle, or at least thats what 2 different gauges said. Good to have friends who are into racing and have extra regulators sitting around.

And he has a car scale laying around.

My guess was 2700 given I still have carpet, have the roll bar, half a tank of gas, and some crap in the trunk (maybe 40-50lbs of stuff?)

IMG_0454 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

and with me in the drivers seat

IMG_0456 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

Im hoping with no crap in the trunk, and no sound deadening ill be down to under 2600 without me in it.

New 16" spal fan did the trick. I had to cut the fan clutch threads off the water pump. There is like no clearance. Temp doesnt really climb much past 94 C.

Made a new turbo oil feed line, last one was a different color and was leaking and a little messed up. You can see it here with the rest of everything.

IMG_0458 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

Need to find a way to hide some of the vac lines and get a new coolant res. The yellow stained one is such an eyesore.

I think I need gauges too. Even with my laptop up, I am used to PSI and AFR. I can't convert KPA and lambda in my head that fast to know when to step off.

And finally, I hit wastegate pressure, and nearly crapped my pants. ITS SO LOUD and fast. It actually hit 20psi and pulled a fuel cut on me. Gotta figure that out.

IMG_0459 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

I hate that PCV line.

IMG_0460 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

and finally.

IMG_0461 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

Good news is almost nothing is leaking. Before there would be a pool of oil on my skidplate. Now its dry under the car.

And finally I ripped the lip off getting it back on the drive on lift. Nice end to the weekend.

and I don't know if this works but heres a reving video. Not trying to toot my own horn but it sounds awesome.

video-1531691014 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

Next few weeks need to be beast mode. Moving is closing in and work is crazy and this car needs to be drivable.

[mitchlevy7]

Disappointing weekend.

Couldnt get the fuel rail to stop leaking. Its supposed to be -8ORB threads, but theres no boss for the o-ring so it just tries to cut the o-ring. Before I was able to just adjust it a little bit and get it to stop but after like 5 tries this time it still leaked pretty bad. Can't have the car leaking fuel, obv. I bought the rallyroad rail on sunday.

Figured out why my headlights dont work. 88-89 cars that came with ellipsoids had a different k4 relay. It is a double switch with the 5th prong also being a 87. The middle (5th prong) is what actually sends power through the fuses and into the lights. The relay I ordered was a 4 prong. I found the right relay in my room at home, which is nice because the BMW one is NLA.

Made a mount for the aeromotive FPR my buddy gave me and sent the hybrid FPR back for repair. I want to go back to the hybrid racing one once its fixed. I am guessing the diaphram ripped on it because adjusting it did nothing.

Because of the fuel leak I couldnt drive the car. Also the oil drain plug is leaking. I ordered a timesert kit for it (expensive AF). I did alot of research and I could have retapped it to m13x1.5 but I have heard some people not have success with it and that still leaves the chance that it will strip again at m13. With the timesert I have some steel in there.

I am a little sketched out by drilling into the oil pan still on the car. I was planning on filling the hole with grease before drilling and tapping. Cleaning it out, and then running a quart or 2 of crap oil through it with the drain open to try and flush it out.

After the FPR, Fuel leak, and headlights work, I should be ready to tune it.

Didn't have as much time this weekend because I was helping my buddy whos shop it was do a powerglide swap in his vette. I think hes crazy for taking 6 gears out of his vette, he thinks im crazy for not putting a glide in my e30.

[mitchlevy7]

new fuel rail= no more fuel system leaks

the FPR is overrun though. holds like 55psi at idle with the adjustment screw all the way out. Hoping I can find a kink in the line but if not I may just run a -6 line all the way back to the tank. I feel like I am chasing my tail on dialing in the fuel in the tune until this is fixed. Fuel pressure is most likely all over the place because I cant dial it in at idle.

Went for a 15 minute back road drive. Longest she has been out and driving in like 4 years. It was a blast. The throttle adjustment stop wasnt tight and the nut fell off, so the screw slowly made its way out. By the time I got back to the shop it was holding the throttle open 15%.

idles smooth as butter. I had to adjust the throttle so it was alot more closed at idle. I had 0% DC on the ICV and it was idling around -5 degrees of timing. Once I closed it more, I was at 5 degrees and 40% DC on the ICV, which I hear is normal.

After I originally went driving in it i noticed that my tail lights, wipers, and blower motor wouldnt turn on. I went into the fuse box to find that those fuses were fine, but with a test probe, they would only get power if I pushed on them a certain way. No wonder why the P.O. had wires running around the fuse box and wire wrapped around a few of the fuses. I bought some electronics cleaner and cleaned all the fuses and the fuse box and then bent some of the terminals in the fuse box so that they had a tighter grip on the fuses. Everything works now.

Also, the oil pain wasnt stripped. The damn mishimoto magnetic oil drain bolt snapped. I had like 15 ft-lbs on it. They drill out the bolt for the magnet, but the hole/magnet are too big and theres no meat left on the aluminum bolt where the threads are. Put a crush washer on a normal bolt and no more leak at the oil pan.

IMG_0478 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr



Instead of fixing the adjuster on my drivers side low beam, I just stole it from the passenger side high beam and took it out to give the intake air.

IMG_0495 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

Whats left:
-Figure out FPR overrun issue
-Bleed the brakes a little more
-tune it
-paint some of the trim (the kidneys look terrible)
-Take it down the south carolina

[Blake B]

A build after my own heart.. lots of trial and error, doing and redoing, but you're sticking to it. Subbed for sure

[mitchlevy7]

A build after my own heart.. lots of trial and error, doing and redoing, but you're sticking to it. Subbed for sure

Thanks man!

Getting down to the wire on moving right now so very little time to work on the car. Looks like ill be trailering it down to south carolina. Even if it was fully tuned and ready to go, my back will never forgive me for driving that long in that fixed back.

[2mAn]

Instead of fixing the adjuster on my drivers side low beam, I just stole it from the passenger side high beam and took it out to give the intake air.

IMG_0495 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

This is the type of problem solving I like!

Glad to see this build continues, at certain points I thought it was a dead project

[mitchlevy7]

This is the type of problem solving I like!

Glad to see this build continues, at certain points I thought it was a dead project

At certain points I thought it was too! I had thought that having a shop to work on my own cars and a dyno would motivate me to get the project done super fast. It sorta did the opposite. After working 50+ hours a week on other peoples cars I had no desire to work on my own.

[mitchlevy7]

IMG_0502 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

IMG_0503 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

I should just start every post with THIS WEEKEND I.....

-Bled the brakes more. I think the rears had some air in them from the manual brake swap. they feel a little better now but ill see what happens when its on the road. I may just have to switch to a more aggressive pad with better initial bite.

-Raised the coilovers all around. There was a bunch of rubber on the fenders from rubbing. Hoping just a little raise will keep it from rubbing.

-Eyeballed an alignment. Just used long sticks right at the wheels to extend their toe angles to at least try and make them straight and even with a tiny bit of toe in. At least make the car driveable. One side also seemed to have like -4 degrees of camber and the other was like +1. I took out as much as I could on the -4 side and added as much as I could on the +1 side. I was using a magnetic angle finder so im sure my measurements were just ballparked.

-Torqued the headstuds again. This is a major pain in the butt because the downpipe and turbo get really close to the valve cover nuts, so off comes the turbo, and a ton of oil drains out of the turbo oil drain (I want to switch it to the timing cover). Most of them needed 1/4 turn to get back to 80ft-lbs, which i read is typical with a cutring.

Didn't get to drive it this weekend because I wanted to make sure the silicone on the valve cover gasket was dry before I started it.

Still can't figure out the FPR overrrun issue. Might just go with a surge tank in an effort to get rid of the stock fuel lines. Just not looking forward to spending like $200 just in SS line. The return line is not kinked or anything. I am thinking its just because the e30 tank return line goes into the bottom of the tank, so its causing a backpressure in the line. Maybe ill block it off and run a bulkhead fitting at the top of the tank.

[mitchlevy7]

FINALLY got the FPR overrun issue sorted out.... had to install a whole new fuel tank, biggest pain in the butt, one of the dirtiest jobs I did on the car so far.

Finally the fuel pressure will sit at 43 psi and lower in vaccum and raise in boost. The cloth braided hose that goes from the filler neck to the tank was fubar'ed and such a pain in the ass to replace. I tried putting a 5/8" fuel hose through the hole to no avail. I ended up putting a -10 stainess hose through the hole and it worked.

Protip- if your subframe is raised, good luck getting the filler neck on the gas tank.

Went for a drive, there is still a ton of tuning to do, but it is for sure on its way there. Its still leaking oil from the vanos because some of the threads are messed up. Im going to have to tackle this later.

[mitchlevy7]

A few pics because words are boring

IMG_0518 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

IMG_0519 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

IMG_0517 by mitchlevy7, on Flickr

[TeXJ]

looking good!

[pandaboo911]

Is that the spectra fuel tank? Sweet build my man

[mitchlevy7]

looking good!

Thanks!

Is that the spectra fuel tank? Sweet build my man

Thank you! Yes it is. Wasnt about to drop 1k+ for a new oem one. no complaints on it (yet).